


Strange Things in and out of the Fog

by Miss_Singing_in_the_Rain



Series: Stranger Things have Happened in the Fog [2]
Category: Dead by Daylight (Video Game), Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Any requests will be here, Entity Says Gay Pride, Gen, Gross language because Ghostface is gross, Killer/Survivor Friendships?, These are basically one-shots/drabbles filling in the time between chapters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-07
Updated: 2020-06-30
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:27:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,910
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23519965
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miss_Singing_in_the_Rain/pseuds/Miss_Singing_in_the_Rain
Summary: Strange things happen in the Fog, both in and out of Trials. These are some of them.
Relationships: Nancy Wheeler & Danny "Jed Olsen" Johnson | The Ghost Face, Nancy Wheeler & Zarina Kassir, Steve Harrington & Nancy Wheeler
Series: Stranger Things have Happened in the Fog [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1692469
Comments: 1
Kudos: 45





	1. An Aspiring Journalist, a Plucky Documentarian, and the Attention-Seeking Photojournalist

Nancy had been in a trial with Ash, Tapp, and Bill when they first came across the Deathslinger.

Upon seeing his weapon, all four of them had promptly said, “I want it.”

The trial had quickly devolved into the four survivors trying every trick in the book to get the Deathslinger’s weapon away from him: Pallet stunning, flashlight blinding, bodyblocking while he carried a survivor, anything and everything they could to make him angry.

It had ended with the four of them being downed at the same, three of them getting hooked before Bill managed to recover and escape through the hatch.

The four survivors still tried to get his gun every time they were in a trial with him.

* * *

“So, most of the killers don’t have guns?” Zarina Kassir asked Nancy as they worked on a generator together.

“No. Most of them use knives or melee weapons. Deathslinger is one of the few with a ranged attack, the only one with anything akin to a gun.”

“And we hear their heartbeat when they’re close? Or is it our heartbeats?”

“Honestly, no one’s entirely sure, but I’m pretty sure it’s  _ their _ heartbeats. But yeah, why do you ask-”

**_Ding_ **

Both Zarina and Nancy were exposed and Nancy barely had time to yell for Zarina to run before she was down on the ground.

“What are you doing lying around on the job, Miss Wheeler?” asked an unfortunately familiar voice.

“Ghostface,” she choked out, tasting blood in her mouth already.

“Awww, I was hoping for a little more reaction than that,” he said, crouching beside her dying form.  


“Would you prefer Jed? Or maybe… Danny?”

Ghostface tilted his head at that.

“Now, how would you know that name?”

“I found your Driver’s License.”

“Nice detective work, Nancy Drew.”

Nancy rolled her eyes at that. The Ghostface then decided to lie on his stomach across from her, like they were two friends at a sleepover.

“... aren’t you going to hook me?”

“Nah, I just wanted to give you a message.”

“Is the message, ‘use Spine Chill?’” Nancy asked, still bleeding out.

“Nah, that perk is for pussies like Claudette and Nea. No, my message is that the killers want to meet with you and any survivors who have info on the Demogorgon.”

“Why?”

“Because I know you know a lot about that thing-”

“No, why would we meet with them?”

“Because you want to see me?”

Nancy glared at him, still bleeding out on the ground.

“Fine, because quid pro quo; you help us keep the Demogorgon out of our realms, and we might not kill you as much.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“Fair. But still, could be interesting. If you don’t go, you’re always going to wonder what you would’ve learned if you hadn’t.” Nancy grimaced as he stood, preparing for the pain of being picked up, struggling, and hooked. “Just think about it,” Ghostface said, before cloaking himself and leaving her on the ground. Nancy tried looking around for her teammates aura’s, but she couldn’t see them.

_ Great. Hex: Third Seal and Knockout, _ she thought to herself. She couldn’t see them and they couldn’t see her. Thankfully, Zarina must have been waiting nearby to pick her up.

“Do you believe him? That they want to meet up?” she said as she healed Nancy.

“I have no idea. I don’t think anything like this has ever happened before…”   
“This could be the breakthrough we need. Imagine what they know about the Entity that we don’t,” Zarina said.

“What difference does it make?” Nancy said.

“ _ All _ the difference. The moment we give up hope is the moment we will never escape,” Zarina reminded her. She used “For the People” to instantly heal Nancy to full health right as the last generator popped, only to suffer the exposed status effect on top of being broken by the use of her own perk.

“Shit, Rancor!” Nancy cursed. “Go hide in a locker, I’ll get the doors open.”

Zarina moved to protest, but Nancy shoved her into the locker and got to work. Unfortunately, the Ghostface must have guessed their plan as instead of going for Nancy, he pulled Zarina out of the locker and dropped her on the ground.

“Nice camera,” Ghostface said, poking at Zarina’s camera as he stood over her, back to the locker he had just pulled Zarina out of as Nancy carefully got into it. “I’ll trade it for a Mori. Or would you prefer to give me the location of Miss Nancy Drew.”

“My camera deserves much better than your poorly framed, vanity shots,” Zarina spat blood in his white mask. The Ghostface tilted his head at her.

“Okay. Now you’re dead.” He picked her up to move her out of the grass that would ruin his shot… only for Nancy to stun him with Head-On, causing him to drop Zarina, who spring burst out of the exit gate. 

Nancy followed right behind her, only pausing to look back at the obviously enraged Ghostface and say, “See you at the meeting, Danny!”


	2. The New Girl on the Block

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nancy gets introduced to the wonderful world of farming.

When Nancy was switched out for Claudette in a trial at the very last second, she was less than pleased. She didn’t even have time to get out her good items and offerings. Even less pleased were the other survivors: Dwight, Meg, and Jake.

“Do you have to wear that sweater? It makes you glow in the dark,” Meg hissed as they worked on a gen with Dwight at the Ironworks of Misery. There had been room for all four of them, but Jake had taken one look at Nancy and slunk off to Entity knows where.

“Sorry, I’ll change into another one next time,” Nancy said, not commenting on the fact that all three of them were glowing orange gold from their faces to their shoes. Those were the forms that showed how long they had truly been here, to have survived and died enough to be ‘touched by the Entity.’

“Heads up, it’s Trapper,” Dwight said, nodding at the approaching figure... until he stopped about twenty feet away.

The three survivors looked at the Trapper, similarly glowing orange gold as he stared right back at them… before he set a trap on the ground in full view of them, and backed up a full 16 meters, making his heartbeat barely noticeable though he was clearly in view. Nancy frowned as Meg and Dwight motioned between the two of them. Dwight ultimately acted first. Nancy thought he was going to disarm it, but instead he stepped in it, crying out in pain. She rushed forward to free him before the Trapper could grab him, only for Meg to promptly do so. Dwight emerged from the trap completely unharmed. Trapper stepped forward to grab and reset the trap and they repeated this, only this time with Meg being the one to step in.

Utterly disturbed by this occurrence, Nancy backed away, directly into Jake who pulled her behind some boxes.

“What are they doing?” Nancy asked him as they continued their cycle of trapping and untraping.   


“Trapper must be having a rough time lately if he’s farming,” he said quietly.  


“Farming?”

He rolled his eyes, but turned to face Nancy. “You know how the Entity lets us know how well we did in a trial at the end? And gives us points for certain actions?” he said and Nancy nodded, staring at Dwight dropping a pallet on the Trapper's head with a calm she'd never seen on him.  “Well, a long time ago, us survivors and killers figured out how to game the system so the Entity gets fed, the killers get their victories, the survivors get to live, and everyone leaves the trial happy.”

“Why don’t you guys do this every trial?” Nancy asked, wincing as Meg screamed for what felt like the 20th time.  


“If the Entity is paying close enough attention and catches us, we all get punished. We only get away with it every now and then. Plus, there are plenty of killers who only want to kill us. Can you imagine Freddy letting anyone leave a trial alive?” Jake asked.  


Nancy shook her head, having been caught by his Blood Warden in a trial recently. It still haunted her.

“So, are you guys… friends with certain killers?” Nancy asked.  


“Fuck no. I hate them all… But there are some who we hate a little less," Jake admitted. "Trapper’s a brute but when he’s not camping the hook, he’s pretty fair. Wraith is pretty merciful most days, letting the last person get the hatch if he kills everyone else. Hillbilly doesn’t like most of us, except Claudette and Meg on a good day, so we have to see if he’s using a speed limiter before extending the olive branch. All of us were the original seven, so we’re the ones who know each other best.”  


Nancy nodded. “Is that why you didn’t want me to replace Claudette?”

Jake sighed and shrugged. “You’re a decent survivor, Nancy. But you’re still very much a stranger. Claudette is family. And as much I don't like seeing her hurt, I know she'll have everyone's back.”

The two continued to watch as Dwight, Meg, and Trapper progressed to hooking, unhooking, healing, and downing each other. Jake motioned for her to follow him and reluctantly, she did.

“Not having an easy time without Hex: Ruin these days, huh, Trapper?” Jake smirked at the killer.  


“Can it, saboteur. Before I change my mind about letting you all go,” the Trapper growled, wiping his cleaver clean again.  


“Yes sir, Mr. Steps-In-His-Own-Traps,” Jake said, managing not to scream when the Trapper hit, downed, and hooked him. Nancy cringed but quickly unhooked him and started healing him.  


"Alright, your turn, fresh meat," the Trapper said once she was done. Nancy looked up at the bloodstained hook.

"Do I have to?" she couldn't help but ask.

"… Best I can give you is pulling you out of a locker. Or pulling you off of a gen. But the hooking is non-negotiable."

Nancy looked between the hook and the others, who looked more calm and at peace here than she'd ever seen them in trial. So she exhaled, nodded, and started looking for a locker.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Assume this takes place before the most recent chapter of my main story.
> 
> I'm hoping maybe I'll be able to have one chapter per group of survivors (this being the chapter of the OG team), but I make no promises.
> 
> When you think about it, it's kind of funny that we associate playing as base characters as being "babies" (baby Dwight, baby Meg, etc) while the newest characters are usually the ones being played by seasoned players (when in terms of game lore/META, it should be the other way around). I think the Stranger Things DLC is the one exception since everyone wanted to play as Steve and Nancy when they first came out.


	3. Keg Kings and The Virgin Laurie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The one thing every Halloween timeline seems to agree on is that Laurie Strode had one (1) kid by Halloween of 1980, which means Laurie was most likely a teen mom. So much for the Final Girl being a virgin.

“I managed to steal a jug of Hillbilly’s moonshine, anyone want to take a few swigs?” Nea said, coming out of a trial at Coldwind farm.

“Screw it, not like there’s nuthin’ else to do,” David said as he took a big swig from the jug before passing it to Dwight, who shook his head.

“Last time I had moonshine, I ended up here.”

“Maybe if you drink again, you’ll end up home,” Meg said as she took a swig.

“Do you honestly think there could be anywhere in any universe worse than this place?” Jake asked.

“Yeah. This place without you guys,” Dwight said.

“Awww. Now you have to drink. To our friendship!” Kate said, thrusting the jug at him. He sighed and shook his head, but took a large gulp to the cheers of other survivors. He held the jug out to Nancy next.

“I’ll pass. Last couple times I got drunk, I did things I regretted,” Nancy said.

“More for us!” Ace shrugged, snatching it up and gulping until the jug was wrestled away from him.

Nancy noticed the former Keg King of Hawkins hanging back from the crowd.

“You alright?” she asked.

“… Do you regret us?” Steve asked her. She blanched.

“What?”

He shrugged. “Both times you got drunk were with me: when we slept together and when you…” He stopped. “I know I wasn’t the best boyfriend and we didn’t split on the best of terms, but I feel like we can be honest with each other now.” 

Nancy frowned. “Steve… I regret a lot of stuff that happened on those days, but I don’t regret having a relationship with you. A part of me wanted to go back to the way things were, but it took me a while to accept that they wouldn’t. I shouldn’t have let the relationship go as long as it did… but I’m glad I had you with me for that time.  And I’m really glad to have you as a friend.”

He smiled and she hugged him, the two of them finally feeling at peace with their past.

* * *

So the moonshine went around and around, most survivors happily indulging, others abstaining. Someone eventually found enough bowls that they could start dividing it up, though some still chose to drink directly from the jug.

“Alright, let’s play a game. We all try to say one true thing about ourselves that no one else in the campfire knows and the most outrageous one wins,” Quentin said.

“Aight, I’m first. I once knocked a guy’s eye clean from his skull,” David bragged as some of the other survivors gagged from the image (though that might’ve just been the moonshine).

“I knew that one, I saw it in the Observer’s books,” Jane said as David cursed.

“Well, I once drugged my boss!” Dwight gasped after taking a large swig of Moonshine.

“Really?!” Claudette said.

“He kept verbally abusing my coworkers. It was the only way I could get him and possibly get away with it.” David gave him a hard slap on the shoulder as Dwight smiled… and rolled his shoulder to get a rid of the ache.

“I think I’ve already got you all beat,” Laurie said, proudly.

“Girl Scout’s stepping up to bat. Alright, Laurie, hit us.” Her smile faded.

“Is the Shape anywhere near?” she asked, looking out past the borders of their camp. Everyone froze and desperately searched the Fog for any sign of the Shape in question. No sign but he seemed to blend with the fog better than most. “Sorry, it’s just… it’s something I’d rather not have it hear.”

“You don’t have to tell us,” Detective Tapp said.

“I can’t think of a better time,” Laurie shrugged. “… I have a kid.”

Cue half of the campfire spitting up their moonshine, the other half swallowing harshly and gagging afterward.

“What?” Jeff asked.

“A kid. Problem is, I have a different kid in three different timelines: two girls and one boy. If I get out, does that mean I can only get home to one of them? Who do I choose? And what kind of mother would I be if I did choose one over the others?” Laurie wondered. No one answered. She took a sip of moonshine before continuing.

“My eldest’s name is Jamie. She was almost seven when I was taken. We were about to move out of Haddonfield, her, myself, and her father. But I decided to visit my childhood home, god knows why. That was where Michael first saw me after being imprisoned for fifteen years. Right on the porch of our family home. And then it stalked me. Murdered my friends. And tried to kill me. Last I’d heard, it was in a coma. I guess the Entity took that as an invitation.”

“What about Mr. Strode?” Quentin asked. She smiled sadly.

“His name is… was… Jimmy Lloyd. He was sweet enough, but we mostly got married because I got pregnant and that was what you did in my time, in my town. He was a good dad and a good husband, which is pretty much all I could ask for with my baggage.” He smile faded. “He’s dead. That much I know. I saw Michael standing in the middle of the road and Jimmy swerved to avoid hitting him. We ended up in a ditch, Jimmy’s head cracked open on the steering wheel. Michael dragged him out and gutted him while I watched. Then it dragged me into the Fog… and here I am.”

She started scratching in the dirt with a stick she’d found.

“The second is my boy, John. His dad was a chain-smoking Methadone addict who is no longer in the picture but still sends the occasional birthday card. This time, I was the one driving the car that crashed when it took me. I was just about to go into Witness Protection with my son too.”

The minor amount of warmth the survivors had gained from the alcohol seemed to go cold in their veins and heavy in their stomachs.  


“The third is the most confusing timeline for me. In that one, the Shape isn’t my brother and it didn’t try to kill me at Haddonfield Memorial after I was taken there. I have another daughter, Karen. I don’t even remember her father’s name, I was drunk in a bar’s bathroom. I was so scared, I moved out to the edge of town and built a bunker for the day it would come to me. I had started teaching her to fight when I got taken. Just my luck I got taken while away from my house.”

She sighed and looked back to the other survivors.

“A part of me thinks it’s better this way. I had so many nightmares, not long before being taken, where I’d died and the Shape went after each of my children instead. And it killed and maimed and tortured until one day… it got them.”

Silence.

She stared out at the Fog, as though almost wishing she could see that mask that had haunted her for so long. “I hate dying and being trapped here with it. But if anything happened to my kids, not even the Entity could stop me from killing the Shape.”

No one said anything for a long time. Then Quentin scooted over to her and put his head on her shoulder. She leaned back on him too.

“Did we just get spoilers for the next Halloween movie?” Steve whispered to Nancy, who elbowed him.

She did end up writing that down in her journal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I thought about adding a section where Ash starts talking about his daughter with Laurie, but this felt like a good place to end it.


	4. Rainbows in the Fog

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Entity says Gay/Lesbian/Bi/Trans/Pan/Poly Pride

It took Nancy and Steve a little too long to realize that the friendships in the Fog were often more than that.

“Good news! Zarina and I are dating now!” Yui announced one day after a successful trial, arm-in-arm with the newest survivor.

“Damnit! Three years in the Fog and I still don’t have a girlfriend to show for it,” Nea said.

“Nea, we’re all your girlfriends, literally all of us have dated you at one point or another,” Min said, her head leaning against Kate’s thigh as she strummed on her guitar.

“Yeah, but I want a steady girlfriend who stays with me long enough that I can justify introducing her to my parents for reasons other than spite… even if spite would be the main reason,” Nea admitted. 

“In that case, I’d be happy to fill in that role; pissing off parents is a specialty of mine,” Yui said.

“Hey, I got disowned long before you did, Yui,” Min said. “I call dibs.”

“… We missed something, didn’t we?” Steve said. The other survivors all turned to him and Nancy as though just remembering they existed. While Nancy enjoyed the intrigue of being from a different universe, it made integrating into the group a touch harder, especially since most of the other survivors seemed to be from the same universe and decade, where she and Steve were neither.  


“You got a problem with that?” Yui asked, holding Zarina’s hand in her fist, pink hachimaki wrapped around it like the bandages of a bare-knuckle brawler.

“No! God no, my best friend is gay!” Steve said. “And I don’t mean that in the ‘I can’t be homophobic, I have a gay BF,’ it’s just, we’re from the Midwest US in the 80s and-”

“There’s not a lot of people who are… out,” Nancy said. To be honest, Barb had sometimes asked Nancy if she ever had feelings for other girls. And at a couple of sleepovers in 8th grade, the two girls had ‘practiced’ making out, though they had both decided they preferred being friends. Though Nancy had always wondered if Barb’s reaction to her dating Steve had been something more than the concern of a friend… 

“Yeah, we generally try to keep public displays of affection to a minimum around the campfire,” Dwight said from his spot in his own love rhombus with Claudette, Jake, and Meg. “But yeah, pretty much all of us have slept with each other at one point or another. It gets lonely and boring out here and when you don’t have to worry about pregnancy or STDs, then you might as well, right?”

“Though most of the old timers tend to keep to themselves,” Jane said, flashing a teasing smirk at some of older male survivors.  


“Who are you calling ‘old timer?’” Ash Williams said, giving her a playful smack on the ass, which she returned with a laughing shove.

“Ace and Bill have a plan to retire together to a Caribbean island if we ever get out of here,” Meg said.  


“When we get out of here, Querida,” Ace said, shining a coin in the firelight.

Steve went on to ask where exactly they had their rendezvous if not at the campfire, while Nancy approached Quentin, who was hanging back more than usual.

“How about you?” she asked. “You ever indulged?”

He shrugged. “Honestly, I’ve been tempted. But I’m a ‘waiting-till-marriage’ kind of guy. Plus, I… honestly have a lot of intimacy issues that I’m still working through.”

Nancy winced internally; he’d explained to her how his Krueger was unlike hers in that he was not only a child murderer, but a predator in all respects. “I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t be. You’re one of the most patient people in the Fog. You and Laurie are the only ones who really get it.”

They fell into a comfortable silence, watching the others untangle the web of their past relationships in the Fog for an incredulous Steve. At some point, someone broke out some stolen moonshine and they started to indulge in other ways.

“Okay, ‘eres the big question and absolutely no judgement: anyone ever slep’ with a killer?” David asked.

A bunch of sighs, groans, and “no”s followed.

“Not for lack of trying!” Min said. “I tried to get the Spirit to notice me for three months after she appeared, but she just stabbed me every time.”

“If Susie was telling the truth, she’s only got eyes for Sensei Francis,” Claudette grinned at Adam, who looked like he was trying to hide in his bright white coat.

“To be honest, the Deathslinger was a little taken aback by my knowledge of his history and was a little bit… familiar in our trials after,” Zarina said. “Wasn’t very happy when I told him I didn’t swing that way, unfortunately.”

“Do you think they even can… you know,” Steve said, doing vague hand motions.

“The killers do get it on with each other, sometimes,” Meg said upon swallowing a particularly large mouthful of moonshine.

“Really?” he asked, more rhetorically than in the way that actually asked to be told more.

“Yeah. The only ones we know for sure are the Nurse and the Wraith; even the Entity ships them,” Meg said. “Though I had my suspicions about Trapper and Wraith back in the early nights, and personally I think Trapper and Pig have some Unresolved Sexual Tension.”

“Bear Traps vs. Reverse Beat Traps,” Jake said, nodding along.

“Their sex would be super kinky,” Nea decided.

Everyone thought about that for five seconds before dissolving into either giggles or gagging.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A Very Late Pride Month chapter. Thank you to my commenters for inspiration on pairings. I come from the school of thought that if you stick a bunch of people away from society for long enough, traditional definitions of sexuality and relationships will mostly dissolve until everyone's pretty open, but that's just me. Feel free to headcanon whatever relationships you want.  
> I love the new DBD Pride Twitch emotes.  
> But I want Pride Cosmetics already.  
> I will pay good money for Rainbow Nea.

**Author's Note:**

> Next chapter of the main story will be coming soon, but I wanted to put this out there for exposition. Zarina is partially based off of a poor Bill who "For the People"d me while I was Rancor after the last gen was done. Thankfully, we all got out okay, but the moment I realized what happened, I felt so bad.


End file.
